Description/
This small landscape work was painted directly over a wooden panel in a rather casual manner. The color and texture of the support shows through in some places because there is no underpainting. The overall palette is vivid with an ocher ground set against a blue sky; the leafy greens of the trees complement the oranges and browns of the shadows on the ground and the gate and walls. It can be discerned from the branches and leaves on the two sides of the picture that the artist applied paint directly onto the painting with a brush without pre-mixing. Layers of greens are festooned with golden strokes to portray the reflection of sunlight on the leaves. Chen used the same technique to articulate leaves shimmering under the sun in Street Scene on a Summer Day (1927), which was completed in the following year. The overall brushwork is loose and unrefined, and the painting is covered with lines of varying weight and lengths. In a 1934 Taiwan Shinmin News interview, Chen said he had referenced Renoir's lines and Van Gogh's brushwork while adopting a more intense and "Eastern" color palette to arrive at a distinctly oriental idiom. He also tried to enliven the composition through the movement of lines. Seeing this painting in the light of the artistic approach he would later advocate, it is evident that his emphasis on lines and brushwork was already germinating at this time.
Bibliography/
- Chuanying Yen, The Complete Collection of Taiwanese Art 1: Chen Cheng-Po (Taipei City: Artist Publishing, 1992), 44, 231.
- Yuchun Lin, Oil‧Passion‧Chen Cheng-Po (Taipei City: Lion Art Publishing, 1998), 43.
- Suchu Li, Painting "Something"—A Study on the Stylistic Maturation of Chen Cheng-Po (1895~1947) (Chiayi City: Chiayi City Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2005), 9.
Tokyo School of Fine Arts
1926
Materials & Techniques：Oil on wood panel
Dimension：24x33 cm
Private Collection
Location:Tokyo School of Fine Arts (Today's Tokyo University of the Arts; 12-8 Ueno Kouen, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan)
